June 27, 2016
Hello everyone,
With this letter, I am providing you with information on new / requested projects along with evaluation
data for you to use in prioritizing projects at the college and Central Services level. Lessons learned on
our first cycle through this process last term indicated that the timelines to implement three cycles of
review in a year may be too aggressive given all of the other activities we have going on. Accordingly, I
have modified the calendar to provide only two cycles of review annually. Please note the revised
calendar in Table 4 below.
For this next cycle of review, what I will need from you by April 6th is to:
1. Recommend priorities for all new, requested projects (see Table 2) based on the information in the
above documents and any additional information that you collect.
2. Recommend changes in priorities of current, requested projects identified as critical to keep the
total number of critical projects to ten or under (if necessary). (See Table 3)
3. Recommend changes in priorities to other current projects as needed.
Appendix A of this document contains a worksheet you can use to report results. Note that only the first
two tasks listed above are necessary to complete. The third task is optional.
Table 1 (below) shows the priority codes to be used in evaluating projects
Table 1: Priority Codes To Use in Evaluating Projects
Code
Title
Explanation
C
Critical
These are the most important projects for the district. Currently ETS has enough staff
to only work on a subset of these at a time.
I
Important
These projects are next in line to be worked on as critical projects are completed.
N
Nice to have
These projects may add some value but are much less in priority and will probably not
be worked on for the foreseeable future.
X
Canceled
These projects are canceled. They may be brought back at a later date.
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Table 2: List of New, Requested Projects
Project Name
Description
For College or CS
CalPERS Benefits
Transition Project
Switch from current benefit
providers to PERS – very important
Central Services but affects
everyone
Yes
iPad Pilot
Set up environment to test iPads for
student – classroom use
Foothill College only
Yes
DA Flea Market
Enable network/phone connectivity
to parking lot for admin support
De Anza College only
Yes
BDMS for
Purchasing
Convert over to electronic
document storage for purchasing
Central Services but affects
everyone
Yes
Modify the student application form
and process currently in Banner
De Anza College only – could
also support Foothill College
No
International
Students
Application
Evaluated?
Some projects may not have been evaluated due to the date that the paperwork was received or
availability of key personnel. ETS will endeavor to conduct the evaluations and provide the information to
you; however, ETS may not have time to evaluate some projects this cycle.
When prioritizing, we would like you to return a final list of no more than ten total Critical projects,
including those already identified as Critical on the previous list. Any more than this makes this
prioritization process meaningless, because at some point everything becomes critical. Our current
prioritization list of critical projects is listed in the table below. You may recommend changes to the
priorities of these projects if they have not already started.
Table 3: List of Current Projects Identified as Critical
Project Name
Has Project Started?
1
Automation for Meetings
Yes
2
ParSystem - ScanTron
Yes
3
SLO Database
Yes
4
Banner Waitlist Stop – FA Contract
Yes
5
Unified messaging (email calendar replacement)
Yes
6
Universal ID (capture card replacement)
Yes
7
Banner Student Installment Plan
No
8
District Web CMS
No
Shaded projects may not be reprioritized. (However, they may be canceled if desired.)
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Listed below in Table 4 are the key dates for review and prioritization of projects by committees involved
in prioritization.
Table 4: Key dates for Project Prioritization Process FY2011-2012
Task
Summer - Fall
Quarters 2011
Winter-Spring
Quarters 2012
Technology Task Force (TTF) meeting dates
Refer to TTF
Refer to TTF
ETS directors finish new project evaluations
By March 6
ETS provides evaluations to TTF & ETAC Committees
By October 2
By March 7
TTF committees submit prioritized lists to VC Technology
By November 2
By April 6
ETAC Committee Review
November 9
April 111
Meetings of District Technology Project Committee2
Nov 15 to Dec 6
April 15 to May 15
Chancellor’s Cabinet Approval
December 13
May 22
Project Status updated with new priorities
January 3
June 4
Please send all suggestions for improvement to me so we can make the process better.
Thank you for your support.
Fred
1
2
Special two hour meeting
Specific meeting dates to be designated later
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Appendix A: Submission Form for TTF Recommended Priorities
Task Force (De Anza, or Foothill, Central Services)
_____________________________
Complete the boxes under titles in red font (also designated by an asterisk*) below, as appropriate.
Table 5: TTF Recommended Priorities for New, Requested Projects
Project Name
Priority*
CalPERS Benefits Transition Project
iPad Pilot
DA Flea Market
BDMS for Purchasing
International Students Application
Table 6: TTF Recommended Changes for Current Critical Projects (if any)
Project Name
Change to …*
Banner Student Installment Plan
District Web CMS
Table 7: TTF Recommended Changes for Current, Non-Critical Projects (if any)
Project Name*
Current Priority*
Change to …*
Please submit this completed form to the Vice Chancellor of Technology by the due date.
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Appendix B: Project Information

IT Project Evaluation Tool - New Projects.xlsx: This spreadsheet contains an evaluation of
several new / requested projects. The graph depicts the results on two axes measuring impact
and effort. The blue dotted line represents the region of the graph where the previously prioritized
Critical projects were located.
The detailed results of each evaluated project are included on the subsequent sheets (which are
numbered). Note that many of the evaluation criteria have pull down menus that standardize the
input from the ETS director and project requester. You can see these by clicking in the light blue
boxes (in Section 2 as an example) and then clicking on the small double arrow icon in the lower
right hand corner of the box.
A team of one ETS director and the project requestor evaluated each of these projects.
Accordingly, these teams are different from project to project so some variations in ratings have
naturally occurred. Also, we noticed a tendency for project requestors to inflate the ratings so that
their projects would be evaluated higher.
It is important when prioritizing projects that factors other than these evaluation scores are
considered; gaining a familiarity with each project is also important for understanding its value to
the district.
Also included in the Excel document is a report that includes the following fields:
Title
Project title
Description
Project description
ETS Lead:
ETS technical lead responsible for project completion
User Lead:
Local person who represents all users on this project
Supports:
Describes the college / Central Services goals that this project meets
Enhancement:
Describes how the critical the project is
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
U.pdf: This document contains a list of already prioritized user-requested projects and their
status. An up-to-date list can always be viewed at
http://fhdafiles.fhda.edu/downloads/etsfhda/U.pdf.
(Sample, not current: only one of several pages shown)
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